Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Infection and Immunity logoLink to Infection and Immunity
. 1992 Oct;60(10):4200–4204. doi: 10.1128/iai.60.10.4200-4204.1992

Killing of Coccidioides immitis by human peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

N M Ampel 1, G C Bejarano 1, J N Galgiani 1
PMCID: PMC257453  PMID: 1398931

Abstract

The ability of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (MNL) obtained from healthy donors to kill the fungus Coccidioides immitis was examined in vitro with an assay that uses a single fungal particle per well. MNL killed 25.0% +/- 3.5% of a coccidioidal arthroconidial target, compared with the 4.7% +/- 2.9% killed by polymorphonuclear leukocytes obtained from the same donors (P = 0.012). Arthroconidial killing by MNL was not dependent on donor delayed dermal hypersensitivity to spherulin. Killing of another fungal target, Candida glabrata, was not significantly different between MNL and polymorphonuclear leukocytes (P = 0.783). Depletion of monocytes from MNL with Sephadex G-10 resulted in a significant reduction in arthroconidial killing (21.4% +/- 13.6% versus 2.4% +/- 3.4%; P = 0.025), while enrichment of monocytes by Percoll density gradient centrifugation or plastic adherence resulted in significantly increased arthroconidial killing compared with that by MNL (P = 0.005 and 0.001, respectively). Killing of 96-h spherules by MNL was 7.3% +/- 3.1%, significantly less than the 21.4% +/- 2.8% killing of arthroconidia in the same experiments (P = 0.016). Incubation of MNL with human recombinant gamma interferon or tumor necrosis factor alpha did not result in increased MNL killing of coccidioidal arthroconidia under various conditions. These results suggest that MNL have an inherent ability to kill coccidioidal arthroconidia in vitro which is not dependent on prior host exposure to C. immitis. This activity appears to reside in peripheral blood monocytes.

Full text

PDF
4200

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Ampel N. M., Galgiani J. N. Interaction of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells with Coccidioides immitis arthroconidia. Cell Immunol. 1991 Mar;133(1):253–262. doi: 10.1016/0008-8749(91)90195-h. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Ampel N. M., Ryan K. J., Carry P. J., Wieden M. A., Schifman R. B. Fungemia due to Coccidioides immitis. An analysis of 16 episodes in 15 patients and a review of the literature. Medicine (Baltimore) 1986 Sep;65(5):312–321. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Beaman L., Beaman B. The timing of exposure of mononuclear phagocytes to recombinant interferon gamma and recombinant tumor necrosis factor alpha alters interactions with Nocardia asteroides. J Leukoc Biol. 1992 Mar;51(3):276–281. doi: 10.1002/jlb.51.3.276. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Beaman L., Benjamini E., Pappagianis D. Activation of macrophages by lymphokines: enhancement of phagosome-lysosome fusion and killing of Coccidioides immitis. Infect Immun. 1983 Mar;39(3):1201–1207. doi: 10.1128/iai.39.3.1201-1207.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Beaman L. Effects of recombinant gamma interferon and tumor necrosis factor on in vitro interactions of human mononuclear phagocytes with Coccidioides immitis. Infect Immun. 1991 Nov;59(11):4227–4229. doi: 10.1128/iai.59.11.4227-4229.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Beaman L. Fungicidal activation of murine macrophages by recombinant gamma interferon. Infect Immun. 1987 Dec;55(12):2951–2955. doi: 10.1128/iai.55.12.2951-2955.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Catanzaro A., Spitler L. E., Moser K. M. Cellular immune response in coccidioidomycosis. Cell Immunol. 1975 Feb;15(2):360–371. doi: 10.1016/0008-8749(75)90014-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Cohen I. M., Galgiani J. N., Potter D., Ogden D. A. Coccidioidomycosis in renal replacement therapy. Arch Intern Med. 1982 Mar;142(3):489–494. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Cox R. A., Brummer E., Lecara G. In vitro lymphocyte responses of coccidioidin skin test-positive and -negative persons to coccidioidin, spherulin, and a coccidioides cell wall antigen. Infect Immun. 1977 Mar;15(3):751–755. doi: 10.1128/iai.15.3.751-755.1977. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Drutz D. J., Catanzaro A. Coccidioidomycosis. Part I. Am Rev Respir Dis. 1978 Mar;117(3):559–585. doi: 10.1164/arrd.1978.117.3.559. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Drutz D. J., Huppert M. Coccidioidomycosis: factors affecting the host-parasite interaction. J Infect Dis. 1983 Mar;147(3):372–390. doi: 10.1093/infdis/147.3.372. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Dugger K. O., Galgiani J. N. Neutrophil killing of single microorganisms as measured by a new method. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 1989 May-Jun;12(3):199–203. doi: 10.1016/0732-8893(89)90015-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Ferrante A., Thong Y. H. A rapid one-step procedure for purification of mononuclear and polymorphonuclear leukocytes from human blood using a modification of the Hypaque-Ficoll technique. J Immunol Methods. 1978;24(3-4):389–393. doi: 10.1016/0022-1759(78)90143-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Fish D. G., Ampel N. M., Galgiani J. N., Dols C. L., Kelly P. C., Johnson C. H., Pappagianis D., Edwards J. E., Wasserman R. B., Clark R. J. Coccidioidomycosis during human immunodeficiency virus infection. A review of 77 patients. Medicine (Baltimore) 1990 Nov;69(6):384–391. doi: 10.1097/00005792-199011000-00006. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Fleischmann J., Wu-Hsieh B., Howard D. H. The intracellular fate of Histoplasma capsulatum in human macrophages is unaffected by recombinant human interferon-gamma. J Infect Dis. 1990 Jan;161(1):143–145. doi: 10.1093/infdis/161.1.143. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Frey C. L., Drutz D. J. Influence of fungal surface components on the interaction of Coccidioides immitis with polymorphonuclear neutrophils. J Infect Dis. 1986 May;153(5):933–943. doi: 10.1093/infdis/153.5.933. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Galgiani J. N., Dugger K. O., Ampel N. M., Sun S. H., Law J. H. Extraction of serologic and delayed hypersensitivity antigens from spherules of Coccidioides immitis. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis. 1988 Oct;11(2):65–80. doi: 10.1016/0732-8893(88)90075-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Galgiani J. N., Payne C. M., Jones J. F. Human polymorphonuclear-leukocyte inhibition of incorporation of chitin precursors into mycelia of Coccidioides immitis. J Infect Dis. 1984 Mar;149(3):404–412. doi: 10.1093/infdis/149.3.404. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Miller M. F., Mitchell T. G., Storkus W. J., Dawson J. R. Human natural killer cells do not inhibit growth of Cryptococcus neoformans in the absence of antibody. Infect Immun. 1990 Mar;58(3):639–645. doi: 10.1128/iai.58.3.639-645.1990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Opelz G., Scheer M. I. Cutaneous sensitivity and in vitro responsiveness of lymphocytes in patients with disseminated coccidioidomycosis. J Infect Dis. 1975 Sep;132(3):250–255. doi: 10.1093/infdis/132.3.250. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Petkus A. F., Baum L. L. Natural killer cell inhibition of young spherules and endospores of Coccidioides immitis. J Immunol. 1987 Nov 1;139(9):3107–3111. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Sun S. H., Huppert M. A cytological study of morphogenesis in Coccidioides immitis. Sabouraudia. 1976 Jul;14(2):185–198. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Wright S. D. Methods for the study of receptor-mediated phagocytosis. Methods Enzymol. 1986;132:204–221. doi: 10.1016/s0076-6879(86)32009-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Infection and Immunity are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES